


strength

by sootcharlie



Series: Voyager (Soothouse Raft AU) [2]
Category: soothouse
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Jack Soot-Centric, Raft AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29506305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sootcharlie/pseuds/sootcharlie
Summary: sometimes being the strongest of the team wasn't always the best
Series: Voyager (Soothouse Raft AU) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141613
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	strength

If you put all five of the Soots on the raft on a scale of strongest to weakest, Jack would very much put himself at the top. Compared to the rest of them, he had a huge advantage by a long shot. Being out in the wilderness for the longest time, and being able to carry most of the team each and every time they were knocked out was something that he would pretend wasn't exhausting on both his physical and mental being.

He just had to be there for them.

He already knew how the others acted out there, and he couldn't take the risk of losing another.

David was too bold for his own good, even running up at a bear and somehow managing to win even though he realistically should have died multiple times. His navigation skills were really good though, so Jack had to give him props for that.

Matt was.. Matt. Nice guy, but sometimes too unknowing for his own good, especially since he was following along in David's footsteps. It sends a shiver down Jack's spine whenever he sees Matt go off onto the island with the green-shirt man.

Dan's alright. Not the best, not the worst either. He's just too uncaring about most things. Shark attacking the boat? Man manages to recreate a duck noise and starts reciting his french while fending off the animal.

Charlie... Charlie was an entirely different story. He's been through too much for Jack not to protect him. He still remembers that the poor guy almost began crying when Dan, Matt, and David all went off on a hunting trip because he thought they were never coming back.

Jack would even go as far as to say Charlie was like a brother to him.

They were just doing another island adventure. They've been through it a ton of times before, park the boat at the shoreline, explore for materials, go swimming a bit, and then come back. Easy enough, they thought.

Nothing much happened for their first few moments of exploring. Hell, even David went back to the ship to relax for a bit because of how boring it was. Jack couldn't blame him, the guy was always looking for some kind of adventure, and this wasn't the right place for it.

"Find anything yet?" Dan asked Jack, putting a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and just sighed, shaking his head.

"Nothing. Seems like David's already went back, and I think Charlie and Matt are getting impatient." He said, motioning over to their friends. Charlie was just idly fidgeting with his hands while Matt was probably telling a story or something to try to keep his attention.

"The two of us could always go ahead and let them take a break, then." Dan suggested with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, seems like they probably wouldn't find anything anyways." Jack replied with a slightly raised tone of voice, and he had to hold back a burst of laughter when the two of them immediately snapped their heads towards his direction.

"Just for that, we're coming with you shithead!" Matt shouted, muttering something to Charlie who nodded to run back to the boat, shouting for David.

 _Great. A group hunt._ Because those always turned out well.

A few seconds later, the blue-texted man came back, holding onto David's hand tightly in a way to pull him towards the group. David looked confused, seeing as they had all been standing there with no sign of even having found something on the island, but Matt broke the silence.

"We're going on a group hunt, since Jack and Dan think they're better than us! That'll help us cover more land anyways." He said, slightly crossing his arms at the end. Dan rolled his eyes and playfully shoved Jack, quietly talking to him.

"This is why we don't raise our voice around the children, Jack."

"Fuck you too, Dan."

They explore the island for a few minutes, kicking around random rocks and generally talking the whole way through, but to most of their surprise, there's nothing. Not even animals, it just seems.. empty. A wasteland.

Which is strange, since they've seen no other boats nearby and they haven't been here before.

"I'm tempted to just go back at this point.." Charlie began, before David's voice cut through the silence as he pointed over at something.

"Found something!" He shouted, looking towards what appeared to be a cave. It didn't seem like much, but it was still some kind of sign of life, and none of them had seen a cave in a while. Maybe it would turn out to be something good.

"Last one in has to be on nightwatch tonight!" Charlie piped up, running into the cave, followed by Matt and David. It was a funny sight, seeing the three of them make it into the small area as fast as possible compared to the other two that were left.

"Well?" Dan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Race you in." Jack challenged. The two looked down at the ground to make sure they were at equal distance, and they dashed in.

It was silent for a couple seconds, and then the blue-texted man piped up.

"You two tied."

David laughed a bit, shaking his head before continuing on. The cave was actually pretty big, far from what they were expecting. They even found a few scraps along the way for the boat. It was going fine, until a loud rumbling noise caught all of their attention. Charlie immediately latched onto Jack. He wrapped an arm around the other, slowly making their way up to the entrance of the cave, and-

..There was no entrance.

"What the fuck?!" Matt said, trying to elbow slam into the rocks. Nothing. They weren't budging.

"We're.. stuck here?" Dan asked, trying his best to push one of them out of the way.

"Looks like a cave in.. Even if we get through one layer, unless one of us has a pickaxe, we're fucked." Jack noted with a sigh, glancing around the cave. It was obvious that going down would just lead deeper in, and who knows what could happen if there was another cave-in.

Charlie was still in his grip, slightly shaking. Okay, okay, this was fine Jack. Your team's all trapped in a cave, nobody knows what to do, and you have a panicking man who was practically your brother that very much needs therapy and relies on you in your arms.

This was fine! Just like their normal island hunts, yep!

Except with less supplies to help them. And less ways to get to the boat. And no ways to call for help. And-

They were fucked, weren't they.

David grunted as he tried to push on the stone a few more times, but still, nothing even moved.

"From the looks of it.. We aren't getting out any time soon." The green-texted man said, looking at the huge wall in front of them.

"Maybe Jack knows a way?" Matt asked, looking over to the yellow-texted man for any sort of an answer. For once, he was at a loss. He.. didn't know what to do at all.

He just stared at the wall, trying his best not to tremble, because he had to stay strong. He had to do it for his friends. For Charlie. Everyone was relying on him, and he knew that if he didn't help, the team would die.

He would lose everyone again.

"..I.. I don't." He said quietly, looking down and hugging Charlie closer to him. The other had gone silent at this point, but it was still comforting to be able to hold another human being. The two slid down against the wall, Jack's head pressed against the stone whilst the shorter's head rested on his chest, but the concerned look he was getting broke him.

"I-I don't know what to do.." He almost cried out, but refrained himself by putting the knuckles of his free hand up against his mouth to silence himself.

He didn't even know if the rest of the team was saying anything, because if they were, he couldn't hear them because he _failed them and everything was so fucking much-_

Shit. He was crying.

"J-jack-! Don't cry-!" Dan said, his joking persona breaking as he kneeled down next to his friend. He held his hands out, closing them into fists twice before re-opening them.

He remembers that motion.

They made it one night when talking about each other's boundaries. Jack wasn't the type to be openly okay with hugs, preferring not to. So they came up with a secret code motion. Opening your hands and closing your fists twice meant 'can I hug you?'

Neither of them forgot it since.

He nodded, and Dan wrapped an arm around him, basically joining into the other two's hug.

"You'll be okay. We can get out of here." Dan muttered, looking up at David and Matt with a glare of 'start finding a way out of here.'

_"I promise."_


End file.
